Teaching Vocabulary to English
Learners
Danell Mieure, PhD
UMTSS
June 24-25, 2015
Objectives
• We will review the importance of vocabulary
instruction
– Research
• We will analyze vocabulary instruction
– Amount
– Quality
– Strategies
• We will look at the communicative approach to
language learning
• We will analyze student work
• We will practice and you will leave with a statistically
significant process to teach vocabulary
My Story
• Saw ELL students struggling
• Wanted to investigate what was happening
• Did research on vocabulary for ELL students
– Applied an intervention to see if something would
make a difference for the students
• It did!
– Statistically significant
Your Story
• Why are you here?
• Why is vocabulary important for your
students?
• What difficulties do you experience with
vocabulary for your ELLs?
Importance of vocabulary instruction
• Gap
• Comprehension
– Influenced by vocabulary
– Decode but not comprehend
• Priority
• Utah State Core
• Without prompting, (students) demonstrate command of
standard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging
vocabulary.
• The vocabulary standards focus on understanding words
and phrases, their relationships, and their nuances and on
acquiring new vocabulary, particularly general academic
and domain-specific words and phrases.
Quantity of vocabulary instruction
• Core reading programs
– 13%, 14%
• Content study
– 6% overall
– 1.4 % in content classes
McGill-Franzen et al., 2006; Flynt & Brozo, 2008
Common vocabulary instruction
• Teacher displays word, reads word and explains or
defines the word
• Look up words in a dictionary/glossary
• Create analogies
• Choral read the word (as basis of instruction)
• Use the word in a sentence
• Read the words in context of a passage to determine
meaning (secondary and elementary)
Vocabulary instruction (cont.)
• Use of affixes and roots to determine meaning
• Ask questions about the words to build background,
understanding (If a tree branch trembles, what might
be the cause?)
• Worksheet
– Fill in the blank
– Match word with clue or antonym
– Write sentences for some of the words
– Multiple choice
• Cloze activities
Effective for English learners?
• What are benefits for English learners?
• What could be a roadblock for English
learners?
What do our students face?
• Typical vocabulary instruction procedures can
be daunting for ESL students
• Assignments may not address explicit
instruction
• Structured instruction of assignments
sometimes lacking
BUILDING VOCABULARY
A. Multiple Choice Circle the letter before the term or name that best completes
the sentence.
1. The conquistador who subdued the Aztec Empire was (a) Juan Ponce de León
(b) Hernándo Cortés (c) Pedro Menédez de Avilés.
2. The mestizo population was a mix of Native American and (a) Spanish
(b) French (c) English.
3. John Smith was the leader of (a) Jamestown (b) Massachusetts Bay
(c) Pennsylvania.
4. The conflict that forever ended Native American power in southeastern New
England was (a) the Pequot War (c) the King Philip’s War (c) the French and
Indian War.
5. The religious group that espoused plain dress and pacifism was the (a) Puritans
(b) Anglicans (c) Quakers.
Glossary/word definitions
• Cotton: fiber
• Tweezers: small pincers for pulling out splinters or hairs
• Vein: membranous tubes forming part of the system of vessels that
carry blood to the heart
• Critique: To critique is to analyze and discuss the details of
something
• Subset: A subset is a set whose elements are all in the original set.
Every set is a subset of itself.
• Common denominator: A common denominator is a common
multiple of two or more denominators.
Immensely
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The dinosaur was immensly.
I was so immensily!!
I joined in a party immensely today.
My dad is immensely that why I am to.
I saw a immensely pig.
I seen a immensely man at the store.
The dragon was immensely.
Mountains are immensely.
She is also immensely when she plays.
King Kong is very immensely.
The hamburger was very immensely.
I immensely.
There was an immensely fight at my house.
The school is immensely big.
Feat
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
He has great feat.
I have a great feat at soccer.
When I take a test I use feat.
My friend was trying to be feat.
My brother has feat rilly well.
My partner has good feat.
People feat on certain skills.
My teacher has feat.
Pebblez has a feat for soccer.
I am feat sometimes.
I want to feat my classwork.
I made a feat this year.
My feat is to drive a car.
I see people feat in playing soccer in t.v. sometimes.
The Communicative Approach
• Emphasis on communication, not just mastery of
parts of language
• One of the teacher’s main responsibilities is to
establish situations likely to promote communication
• Students have the choice about what to say
and how to say it
• Communication is purposeful; immediate
feedback
• Partners or small group situations maximize the
communicative opportunities for students
Components of the Research
Treatment
• Explicit explanation of the word
– Student friendly explanations provided by
the teacher
– Students created their own descriptions of
the words, automatically student friendly
• Nonlinguistic representations
– Used by the teacher in explicit explanations
of the vocabulary words
– Students created their own linguistic
representations of the words
Components of the Research
Treatment (cont.)
• Word association activity done as a whole
class/partner discussion
– Build background
• Word analysis (morphology)
– Done as whole class, directed by teacher
– Done as partners
Components of the Research
Treatment (cont.)
• Graphic organizers
– Basis for the communicative approach
– Included nonlinguistic representations,
descriptions, examples/non-examples, word
analysis
• Review games
– Required partner or group interaction
– Used nonlinguistic representations and student
friendly descriptions
LET’S DO IT!
Day 1
• Explicit explanations
• Non-linguistic representations used by
teacher
• Students write their own explanations
fault
Molecular diffusion
algorithm
Day 2
• Word associations
– What word could be related to being in trouble?
• Has something ever been your fault?
– Have you every observed molecular diffusion?
• Have you ever made a powered drink such as Kool-Aid
or hot chocolate?
– When have you used an algorithm?
• Have you ever had to follow steps in a video game?
Day 2
Word analysis
WORD
PREFIX
BASE WORD
SUFFIX
fault
fault
molecular
diffusion
molecule
ar
diffuse
ion
algorithm
algorithm
Day 2 continued
• Student-generated nonlinguistic
representations of the words in their
notebooks
Day 3-4
• Graphic organizer
• Communicative: recorder/reporter
–Couldn’t complete all the graphic
organizers on their own; required a
partner
• 5 activities
Word:
description
picture
template
example
word
non-example
prefix
base word
Suffix
Day 5
• Review games
– $100,000 Pyramid
– Jeopardy
The $100,000 Pyramid
six
five
four
one
two
three
Jeopardy
W
O
R
D
Q $100
Q $100
Q $100
Q $100
Q $200
Q $200
Q $200
Q $200
Q $300
Q $300
Q $300
Q $300
Q $400
Q $400
Q $400
Q $400
Additional benefits of the treatment
• Vocabulary taught daily
• Treatment teachers kept to a schedule
• Treatment teachers were consistent in using effective
strategies
• Interaction between treatment students led to more
and deeper conversations
• Instructional strategies were purposeful and strategic
– Nonlinguistic representations focal point of word
descriptions by teacher and student
– Graphic organizers used for interaction and vocabulary
practice/development
– Notebooks integral part of instruction
– Review games designed to increase interaction
Questions?
Danell Mieure, PhD
dmieure@yahoo.com
mieured@ogdensd.org